Tag: freedom

To him, the earth’s surface beyond the pavement was simply a moving tableau — a gauzy, unreal backdrop for his high-speed travel. He was spatially crippled. The writer Rebecca Solnit nails this mind-set perfectly in her book “Wanderlust: A History of Walking”: “In a sense the car has become a prosthetic, and though prosthetics are usually for injured or missing limbs, the auto-prosthetic is for a conceptually impaired body or a body impaired by the creation of a world that is no longer human in scale.”

For a properly functioning 21st Century New York economy, all must have accessible and affordable high speed internet. Wireless or wired, all New Yorkers need unfettered access to connect.

Second, The freedom to learn.

For a properly functioning 21st Century New York economy, all New Yorkers need access to top quality education. Regardless of language, age, or class, all New Yorkers strive for the freedom to learn.

Third, The freedom from tyranny.

We must be able to know WHAT our government is doing. We must have the ability to interface with our government, wherever, whenever, and regardless of platform. We must have the power to affect change and truly be a government by the people for the people.

Fourth, The freedom to innovate.

This city was founded on innovation. From the fur trader to the 21st Century Maker, this City’s heritage is rich in entrepreneurial ideas. Our innovations don’t know nationality, race, gender, sexuality, age, nor language. We need laws and policies that keep us grounded in opportunity, provide for the general defense of the commons, and enable us to keep growing.

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For the past few months, I’ve been thinking of the best way do describe our 21st Century values to elected officials and people running for office. I know there is the Declaration of Internet Freedom, but I don’t think it properly encapsulates our collective values for a fully functional economy and society. Working off of FDR’s Four Freedoms, I’m proposing these four freedoms for our 21st Century.